Just like work today, education is happening everywhere. To support this new model, the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) has given its IT infrastructure and approach to delivering programs a fresh look. With the support of Citrix 2021 Partner Innovation Award finalist Third Octet, UTM has built a modern environment in which it can provide consistent, secure and reliable access to all of the resources its students need to learn and succeed, anywhere, anytime, using digital workspace solutions from Citrix Systems, Inc.
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Reimagining the Student Experience
UTM prides itself on delivering a superior student experience, and technology has always been central to its efforts. But when the pandemic hit, it had to reimagine things.
“Priority was shifted from not only bringing virtual applications to the table, but being able to provide access to our onsite lab resources from remote locations,” said H.Y. Luo, UX Analyst, UTM.
Keeping Things Simple
Providing a simple, familiar experience also became critical.
“One of the key things we were asked to do was to have the tools that we offered work the same way they worked when people were onsite so that our staff and students didn’t have to learn new ways of doing things,” said Anthony Betts, Senior Manager, IT Client Services, UTM.
It was a tall order, but Third Octet was confident it could fill it with Citrix.
“The benefit to using Citrix is that it is adaptable to changing conditions,” said Matthew Metelsky, CEO, Third Octet.
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Moving to the Cloud
The first step the firm took was to move UTM’s Citrix environment to the cloud, leveraging Citrix Cloud services.
With Citrix Cloud services, IT organizations can rapidly deploy secure digital workspaces while placing their sensitive app, desktop and data resources on any cloud or hybrid cloud. Using the solution, UTM was able to quickly bring its lab classes to a remote environment and deliver a high-quality experience to students, regardless of their location.
Preparing for the Future
The next step for Third Octet is to build on its success and help position UTM to thrive in the future.
“Now that we’ve seen the areas where remote education can be successful, we are taking a longer-term, strategic look into how to support these platforms,” said Metelsky.
And Citrix will remain at the center of its efforts. “What we designed to meet a short-term need can be easily be adapted into a long-term strategy to support remote education that will give UTM a competitive advantage,” Metelsky said.
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